Great Britain: Google Earth replaces Iraq images due to terror threat

The company has relented in the conflict over Google Earth depictions of British troop camps in Iraq. The current map material has been replaced by older images from before the war in Iraq. This is according to several Google Earth users and the British IT portal The Register.  
The Daily Telegraph reported last weekend that insurgents were planning attacks on British camps using map material from Google Earth. Corresponding documents had been seized during house searches. The accusation that map images can be misused by terrorists is not new. However, Google Germany does not want to accept this accusation: "Google Earth has been downloaded over two million times. The overwhelming majority of users use the program for purely peaceful purposes," Google spokesperson Stefan Keuchel told pressetext. Google Earth is also not the only source for such image material. Keuchel also emphasized that Google Earth had also proven its worth in the past during disaster relief operations, such as Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake in Pakistan.